Mar. 2, 2014

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The work of Edward Deeds will be displayed at Art Inspired beginning Friday through the month of March. Harris Diamant, who purchased some of the drawings, says 'It was the great beauty and the haunted mystery of the drawings that drew me in.' / Submitted photo

Want to go?

“Talisman of the Ward: The Album of Drawings by Edward Deeds” will be on display starting Friday during First Friday Art Walk at Art Inspired, 310 S. Campbell Ave., 868-8084. The exhibit continues during business hours through March. The store is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday (hours during Art Walk). The exhibit is free to the public. Two related films will also be shown. Learn more• Facebook: “James Edward Deeds, Jr.” • Abilities First: abilitiesfirst.net • Art Inspired: artinspired.me • Diamant’s art: harrisdiamant.com

State Hospital in Nevada

The mental institution where Edward Deeds spent most of his life was in Nevada, Mo. It was completed in 1887 and was the largest single building in the state at that time. The Missouri State Hospital Number 3 has gone by several names. In the early years, the sign in the lobby referred to it as “Lunatic Asylum Number 3.” Later it was referred to as “State Hospital for Insane, Number 3,” and “State Asylum Number 3.” Eventually it was referred to by the more politically correct “State Hospital Number 3.” Deeds was committed when he was 17 and released when he was 65, in 1973. The hospital was demolished in the late 1990s. Sources: www.lyndonirwin.com/asylum.htm; news-leader archiveshttp://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~movernon/state_hospital.htm

Tidbit about “The Electric Pencil”

The name “The Electric Pencil” came from one of the drawings, except in the picture, electric was spelled “ECTLECTRC.” At the time, Harris Diamant believed the artist was dyslexic. Now he believes the scrambled spelling stands for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock. Poring back over the work, now that Diamant knows more about Edward Deeds, he’s noticed several drawings have the letters “ECT” embedded in them.

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Welcome home, Edward.

James Edward Deeds (1908-1987) was an Ozark man who spent most of his life in a mental hospital in Nevada, Mo. While there, he endured a barrage of electroshock therapy but also created 283 drawings on hospital ledger paper.

The drawings — which were numbered and leather-bound — were found in a trash heap in 1970 on Seminole Street, in Springfield’s Brentwood neighborhood.

For years, the identity of the artist was unknown, until a News-Leader article in 2011 helped uncover the mystery.

Since that time, Deeds’ work has been published in a book, “The Electric Pencil,” and was the subject of a documentary. The work has been displayed in Paris, New York, Miami and Switzerland and garnered praise from national and international media.

But it has never been on exhibit in the Ozarks.

Until now.

Friday, 15 pieces from his collection will be featured during First Friday Art Walk at Art Inspired, 310 S. Campbell Ave. The works are on loan from New York and will be exhibited until the end of the month.

Jan Jones is one of the people responsible for bringing the drawings here.

She is executive director of Abilities First, an advocacy agency for people with disabilities in Greene County, and she wanted to use Deeds’ work to honor Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in March.

There is speculation that Deeds had a form of autism and was misdiagnosed, said Richard White, curator at Art Inspired.

Deeds’ niece, Julie Phillips of Springfield, is thrilled about the exhibit.

“That was really exciting to come back home,” Phillips said. “What gives me the greatest comfort is the fact his work has been discovered and people appreciate it, and they appreciate his story and what he’s been through. That is what makes it worthwhile: He has been vindicated.”

Deeds lived a tragic life, and his story, as much as his artwork, has captivated thousands.

The art

It’s fair to say that Springfield is the smallest market in which these pictures have been shown, said Tom Parker, associate director of Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York, which represents the collection.

“It’s fair to say, but in many ways, it’s the most poignant and best market for them,” Parker said.

Several of the pieces will be for sale for $16,000 each (the going rate for most of Deeds’ work).

He is considered an outsider artist, which is a self-taught one.

That sector of the market is strong right now, said Parker.

“The appeal of outsider art is the stories, as well as the works are very honest,” he said. “They are uninfluenced by any agenda, and that is appealing to all kinds of people. It is art made from the heart, and Deeds personifies that beautifully. Then, all outsiders have a story. Deeds is no different. How they (the art) were almost lost, tossed in the garbage, rescued by a young boy. It’s a fairly compelling story. It beat the odds. The artist himself beat the odds, and then the drawings, after they left his hands, the odyssey is very improbable.”

The odyssey of returning home started last year.

Last summer, an employee at Abilities First read a story out of New York about Deeds and the success of his work. She knew he was an artist from Ozark and thought it would be a fitting way to celebrate people with developmental disabilities.

In November, White and Jones flew to New York to meet with Parker about the possibility of loaning the pieces to the gallery.

“They thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to have some of the pieces displayed here since this is where he started, in the Ozarks,” said Michele Fields, director of public awareness at Abilities First.

When the exhibit opens during Art Walk, two films will also be shown. One is a documentary about Deeds; the other features interviews with people who have spent time in a mental institution (some in the same hospital as Deeds) and young people talking about life today for people with disabilities.

“It shows a unique perspective about life’s journey for people with developmental disabilities,” Jones said. “There are so many things about the exhibit that are relevant today. You can see things that haven’t changed but also see how much progress has been made. We are looking at where we’ve been and where we are going.”

Deeds' story

In January 2011, the News-Leader printed its second story about Harris Diamant, a New York sculptor who purchased a collection of 283 drawings completed by an anonymous artist believed to be from the Ozarks. It was a follow-up to a 2007 story written shortly after Diamant’s purchase.

Nothing was known about the artist, but the drawings were done on front and back sides of ledger paper from a mental hospital in Nevada, Mo., and it was believed he was a patient there.

“Without hesitation, I knew this was a great find,” Diamant wrote in an email. “A concise body of work, each drawing stamped with the imprimatur of The Asylum in which they were created is, perhaps unique. But, it was the great beauty and the haunted mystery of the drawings that drew me in and made their purchase a comfortable decision. Possessing such a collection was a huge thrill. Perusing them drew me in deeper and deeper and before I understood what was happening, I was fully engaged by the collection and well on my way to attempting to discover the identity of the artist and deciphering the meaning of the drawings.”

For years, Diamant searched for the identity of the man behind the drawings, even hiring a private detective.

Nothing came of it.

Then, on that January morning in 2011, Julie Phillips of Springfield opened the News-Leader that featured this mystery artist and recognized the work as that of her uncle, James Edward Deeds.

“Uncle Edward” was raised on a family farm in Ozark by the Finley River.

He was born in 1908 in Panama but moved to the Ozarks as a young child. According to family accounts, he was different and did not get along with his father.

As a teenager, he was forced out of the house and lived in a cabin on the family’s property. His brother, Clay, would bring him dinner.

After a fight with Clay, Deeds’ father had Edward committed to a mental institution.

He was only 17.

“You didn’t have to be crazy back then to be committed,” said Phillips. “You could be put in an asylum for anything. Men did it to get rid of their wives and remarry. It’s not a very happy way to go.”

Phillips said her father, Clay, described his brother as an intelligent man who loved the arts and was outdoorsy.

“It’s a really sad story. I did get to see some of his medical records, and it didn’t seem from his intake assessment, or what you call something like that so long ago, it sounded like he was really fun. He had a great sense of humor. The person doing the interview said he was grandiose and funny,” Phillips said.

But Deeds changed during his incarceration, and family members believe it’s because of the electroconvulsive therapy he received, a procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain, deliberately triggering a brief seizure.

During the therapy’s early years, when Edward would have received it, high doses of electricity were administered without anesthesia, leading to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects, according to information from the Mayo Clinic.

In a 100-year report of the asylum, the former director wrote a few paragraphs on ECT and said it was administered twice a week for many patients.

Even though he’d been committed for life, Edward was discharged to Christian County Nursing Home in 1973 when he was 65.

The Nevada hospital determined he was no longer a threat to society or himself, even though he was never a threat, said Phillips.

In 1977, Phillips went to meet him at the nursing home. “He looked just like my dad. He was bald and very quiet. He looked down at the ground a lot and was polite and quiet and calm,” Phillips said.

Deeds died of a heart attack in 1987 and is buried in Ozark Cemetery.

He spent his final days in what is now Ozark Riverview Manor. He grew tomatoes in large vegetable cans that kitchen staff would save for him.

He had trouble sleeping.

“Someone said she took care of him and he was a sweet man,” Phillips said.

Fame

So how did Deeds’ collection of art end up in the trash?

In 1969, Clay Deeds moved, and the contents of the attic were used to compensate the movers who complained they were not being paid enough. Clay didn’t realize the drawings were up there when he said the movers could keep what was in the attic.

At some point, they were tossed into trash on Seminole Street in the Brentwood neighborhood. A 14-year-old boy found them in 1970 and kept them for 36 years, when he sold them.

Diamant discovered them, and those drawings have been around the world. At last, some of them are coming home, where their journey began.

“I never dreamed his work would go overseas and have such a following.

“For crying out loud, the guy has a Facebook page, and he’s been dead for 30-something years,” Phillips said.

While Diamant originally purchased the drawings as a collection, it has been split up. Each piece is actually two pieces because Deeds’ drew on the front and back of pages.

About one-third of the collection has been sold to collectors around the world, said Parker.

“It’s remarkable to think here is Edward Deeds toiling away in a hospital, and now his voice is spread around the world and hopefully that will continue,” said Parker.